Privilege of Responsibility

(This blog was originally posted on July 9, 2014)

    Last year, Honda® issued a recall notice for several models of their vehicles sold in California because there is a defect in the air-bag/air-bag deployment. I am sure that this announcement is probably frustrating and frightening for owners of these vehicles. In addition to their concern that the problem may endanger their and their passengers’ lives before the car goes in for service, needing to get this repair done is probably an inconvenience (and stress) they could do without. Welcome to the world of having to take responsibility for and taking care of the things we own. 

      Responsibility follows us everywhere we go. If we want to drive a car, we need to have a driver’s license and car insurance. We need to be responsible drivers by following the rules (laws) of the road and making sure that our vehicles are safe and serviceable. We need to make sure that we have enough gas to get us where we need to go and regularly check the car’s oil/brakes/tire-pressure.

      The same is true if you own a home. When a water pipe breaks or a toilet overflows, it is up to you to repair the problem or call someone to do it for you. You may need to repaint the outside of the house or replace the shingles on the roof from time to time, to ensure you will be protected from the elements during inclement weather. If you own a lot of land, you are responsible for cutting down weeds or tall grasses and trimming dead branches off trees to safeguard your property from fires (and reduce fire hazards).

      

     Responsibilities multiply quickly when you take care of other people or animals in your family, and they can be overwhelming. Rather than consider them in terms of “work” you need to do, try this to lighten your load: turn your thoughts into attitudes of appreciation or gratitude that you have these privileges in your life. Lisa Machenberg, an instructor at the Hypnosis Motivation Institute, shared this insight (attitude-shift) with my class during a case conference many years ago. Acknowledging and expressing gratitude for something you “must do” not only symbolically pay for the privilege of having that object in your life; this new perspective actually adds relief or even joy to doing that activity. You or I would go right to the doctor to set our (or our child’s) broken leg, or call a veterinarian if one of our pets was sick. We probably wouldn’t even think twice about doing this, either, because the physical comfort of setting the bone would equal the emotional relief of knowing that this procedure, while temporarily uncomfortable, will prevent future inconvenience down the road. 

      When we change that mental script in our subconscious mind from owning and maintaining (“when necessary”) something to a script which values, cherishes and takes care of that object, we start to appreciate its true worth. A car isn’t just a car: it is the equivalent of a magical carriage that literally carries us and/or our family to a specific destination and makes sure we reach it safely. The house or apartment in which we live isn’t just a structure but the home that provides shelter from inclement elements and safety from perceived threats. It is the place where we have made (and keep) our favorite memories, and will make many more.

    

I am grateful for the opportunity to give the people and home I adore, and the car and other objects in my life that make my life so convenient, a little (or a lot) of tender, loving care when they need it. In fact, it is a privilege to do this. After all, where would I be without them?

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2015

Dehypnotizing the Hypnotized Client

(This blog was originally posted on July 27, 2014)

         Every now and then, someone seeking hypnotherapy comes in for the appointment already hypnotized. Hypnosis is a completely natural state which every one of us experiences for approximately 30 minutes, at least twice a day—just before drifting to sleep at night and right after waking up in the morning. As I have explained in previous blogs, we are also susceptible to experiencing a natural, environmentally-induced trance at other times of the day. (For more information about this topic, see: Have You Ever Been Hypnotized Before?; An Extreme Example of Environmental Hypnosis; and Hypnotized by the Grocery Store. And then there are instances in which we hypnotize ourselves. This is the state (and kind) of hypnosis I will address in this essay.

Psychologist John Kappas, Ph.D. observed that hypnosis occurs when an overload of message units disorganizes the inhibitory process, which triggers the fight/flight response to result in this hyper-suggestible state. Since we are more suggestible to ourselves than any other stimuli in our environment, we can get caught in a pattern of carrying beliefs or behaving in ways that do not work for us, but we continue to act that way because that is what we have always done. For example, someone who continues to accept work that is considerably below the individual’s skill and desired pay-grade may do this because the individual follows a mental script that says this is the best he or she can do. Now, despite expressing a desire to pursue a more lucrative career and possessing obvious skill to do that work, the person doesn’t even try to pursue a different career because he or she believes that original mental script

To help an already-hypnotized client exit this state, Dr. Kappas advised deepening the person’s state even further and blocking his or her subconscious mind from accepting negative suggestions or influences from the environment. This must be done before proceeding with the regular hypnotherapy session to address the self-improvement goals that the client wants to actualize, the Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder said. If the client knows when, where and why these negative mental scripts evolved, I will systematically desensitize the person to the environmental stimuli that trigger the undesired responses/behaviors.

However, if the client does not know how these negative mental scripts evolved, I do not employ age-regression therapy to explore and desensitize the origins of those negative beliefs. (For more information about this topic, see my blog titled “Age Regression…and why I Don’t Use This Technique. Rather, I use a technique called “rejection-proofing,” wherein I provide hypnotic suggestions to help increase the client’s overall self-acceptance, self-appreciation and self-approval. This process enables the individual to dismiss the negative self-talk (“chatter”) in the person’s subconscious mind and re-write a new mental script to reinforce the positive beliefs about his or her abilities to pursue those goals.

Finally, to increase the person’s ability to control entering the hypnotic state, I target the the logical (left-brain) side of the client’s subconscious mind during this and subsequent hypnotherapy sessions. I also teach the person how to count out of hypnosis whenever the individual notices that he or she is naturally entering this state at home, work, driving or any other time.

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2015

I Wear One. Do You?

(This blog was originally posted on July 13, 2014)

Photo by Rick Hustead

When I posed for this photo on my first horse, Geeves, we weren’t planning

to move or go anywhere, but I insisted on putting on the helmet just in case.

                Tomorrow, August 1, 2015 will be International Helmet Awareness Day 2015. For the past couple of weeks, my local tack shops and favorite equestrian catalogs offered promotional discounts on riding helmets to encourage riders to invest in and use this important safety equipment.

         Helmets are probably the most important equipment that equestrians use when they ride and work around horses. You don’t absolutely need a saddle to ride a horse. Many people, including Gaia Horsemanship founder and instructor Ellen Cochrane, can and do forgo a bridle and reins when they ride. I would love to do that one day, too. But ride without protective headgear? No. Way.

When I was about 10 years old, someone I know went temporarily blind after falling off of a pony. She wasn’t wearing a helmet. That was my wake-up call, as well as that of everyone else where I rode at that time. From that day on, I (and everyone else at the stable) wore protective headgear. For me, putting on a hard hat before I get on a horse is as automatic as fastening my seat-belt when I got into a car. Much of the professional and amateur equestrian community received their big wake-up call about helmet awareness when former Olympian Courtney King-Dye sustained a traumatic brain injury after she came off a young horse during a schooling session in 2010. As I recall, she wasn’t even working on particularly advanced dressage movements at the time; the youngster stumbled, she fell off and landed beneath him. King-Dye wasn’t wearing a helmet at the time and fractured her skull and suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result of the accident. If an experienced and talented Olympic rider could get hurt like that, so could any of us.

Like so many things in life, it is very difficult to change a known behavior that we have been doing for most of our lives. After all, there is something very romantic and liberating about the image of galloping a horse with your hair billowing out behind you. I just can’t imagine doing that anymore. After witnessing a fall that temporarily blinded someone very close to me, and hearing my dad (a retired neurologist) constantly telling me how dangerous horses and riding are (yes, they can be), I err on the side of caution. In fact, caution is an early and very well-established known in my subconscious mental script.

       In light of Ms. King-Dye’s accident, in 2013 the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) decreed that all dressage competitors from introductory to Grand Prix must wear approved GPA titanium helmets at local and national competitions. (There went my fantasy about wearing the coat and top hat.) As far as I know, the international show organization, Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI), does not currently have a similar mandate, riders are seen sporting helmets more and more frequently at the international competitions. Charlotte Dujardin, the dressage champion at the 2012 Olympics, won team (United Kingdom) and individual gold medals, and she wore a helmet instead of the traditional top hat. In fact, she was the only competitor I saw who made this choice, although she certainly didn’t have to. I think that must have been another game-changing moment for the Riders4Helmets campaign: If an Olympic champion chooses to wear a certified helmet in competition, so can you and I.

         I confess that I was really looking forward to the day when I would be be eligible to compete in the Prix St. George (and above) dressage classes. Not just because I wanted to ride canter pirouettes, tempi changes, passage and piaffe, but also because I wanted to be able to wear the top-hat-and-tails that dressage fashion riders sport in these upper-level competitions. (By the way, that is the only “fashion” or look that really interests me.) However, I am not prepared to sacrifice my health and well-being and (hopefully) many more years of enjoyment working with and riding my horse to wear a garment that would not protect me if the worst ever happened.

Following are links for more information about Courtney King-Dye, the Riders4Helmets program and the role of protective headgear in preventing riding-related TBI:

Courtney King-Dye’s Accident Causes Shock and Sorrow, Leads to Drive for Helmets,  

Dr. David Geier: MUSC Surgeon Promotes Equestrian Helmet Safety and

“Debbie McDonald Credits Helmet with Saving Her From Serious Injury In Horse Accident”

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2015